Message development – how to develop messages that stick

Messages are the words that deliver your strategy. It can be difficult to agree on the words that express the ideas that you want to convey about your industry, sector or policy. Our workshops enable your teams to develop and refine messages for your policy areas, projects and campaigns.

Course content

  • The nature of positioning effective organisational messages
  • Examples of corporate and institutional communication messages – an assessment of the good, the bad and the ugly
  • Communication objectives (awareness raising, influencing opinion)
  • Audiences focus – how to focus message on what your audiences care about
  • The ‘Message House’ structure – the big idea, key messages, proof (hard and soft)
  • Supporting statements – how your messages set the context, describe the relevance and are novel
  • Powerful messages – the mind (logic), the heart (engaging) and the hands (practical)
  • How to select key ideas, headlines and soundbites

The training includes input on ideas, case studies and examples and then a practical workshop where participants will brainstorm and draft messages, supporting statements and proof points.

We will then ‘stress test’ the draft message in groups by presenting and cross checking understanding and how well the messages resonate. Optional activity will include pitching messages, stories and examples to a journalist for feedback and evaluation.

Outcome

We plan to have a draft a series of roughly tuned messages that can be used to communicate the various policy themes, projects and campaigns that your organisation has to run.

Format – In-person and online

In-person: We bring people together in groups at your office or training centre in line with social distancing rules.
Webinars and online coaching: We run webinars for groups and online follow up coaching for individuals.
Online learning: We provide learners with online reading materials, tasks and cheat sheets.

Follow up training

We can tailor a programme to include Presentation Skills or Media Training. Our clients often ask for follow up training in Advanced Writing skills so that staff are well practised in developing both spoken and written messages.

For more details and a quote please contact us

Tel: +32 (0)473 39 18 90 or at info@formativecoms.com